Don't even worry about reminding me I only have a year left, some missionaries get all outta wack about talking about home, talking about home is something we do A LOT out here haha Pretty exciting though! This next couples weeks are gonna be full of fun things worth celebrating. Fourth of July, my year mark, Elder Worley's birthday, Zone Conference, Elder Worley's 11 month mark, we will be celebrating all month!
THE BAHAMAS! Oh my, so many things to say. My flight was supposed to leave Kingston at 12, we got ther eat about 7:30 because Elder Grays flight to Cayman was cruising out at 9ish, so me and Elder Stubbs (who is now in Turks and Cacios with Elder Nelson) kicked it in the airport, got some BK breakfast, and waited for our flight to miami. It was late coming in, I don't think we left until about 1ish. I love flying! It's so legit. It was a good flight, nothing crazy, but flying into Miami... GOD BLESS AMERICA. Holy smokes, I couldn't stop smiling. It was weird to see cards driving on the other side of the road, I kept waiting for them to crash or something. We landed in late, like 3:30, and I was supposed to start boarding my plane at 3:35 ALL the way on the other end of the airport. We have to go through customs again, so I threw a quick goodbye to Elder Stubbs and bolted to through customs, picked up my bags, checked them again, and cooked all the way to the other side of the airport out to a bus on the tarmac and made 10 minutes before the bus was about to leave. Safe to say I could've been Usain Bolt in a race that day, and I even had my guitar on my back. On the flight to Nassau I sat next to a French girl and a French couple and thought of Robbie. The thought was "How in the world does he understand was these people are saying." He's gonna have one goofy accent when he gets home thats for sure.
It was raining when we got into Nassau, but still about 85 degrees. I felt so out of place (and still do) going from the straight amazon jungle of highgate, not having running water and a building in the basement of a tiny little complex, to coming off the plane and having Elder Worley ask where I want to go to eat... meaning there is more options than just cook shop or Cup Noodles at the house. Pretty legit. Elder Worley is my new companion. He's from Logan, UT and is the man. We were friends in the mission before he left, and so once again, I've lucked out on having the COOLEST companions on my mission thus far. He's awesome, super good at soccer. He played for Utah State for a year before he came out, his Dad was actually in Spokane last week (as he just found out emailing his crew just now), its going to be an awesome time here in Nassau.
Life here is SO much different that in Jamaica. Nassau is only 7 miles in width but feels HUGE. Downtown is nuts, so many nice hotels like the Hilton and Sherriden, there is a lot of construction happening, they have super fancy stores like Rolex, Gucci, etc. Tons of places to eat, shop, its definetly a tourist town. The best part about it though.... McDonalds. We've hit it up probably three times in the 6 days I've been here. And Wendys, oh sweet sweet Wendys. We quickly realized that we are going to be 700 pounds if we continue to succumb to the promptings of the half pounder with cheese and a carmel shake, so we bought a bunch of fruit and salad stuff, some protien powder (which was ridiculously expensive but probably still cheaper that having you send some out and then me paying the duty on it, everything is expensive here because no one pays an income tax so everything that is shipped in, which is EVERYTHING, has a 85% duty slapped on it. But we because friends with the manager of the GNC here so he gives us a 20% discount on anything) we have a weight bench and weights in out house, we run every other morning on the beach as the sun rises... life is pretty good. Our house is so nice! Central AC, AC units in all the rooms for the added chill, our own washer AND dryer, two bathrooms, a kitchen, two couches and a recliner, CARPET. It reminds me of Gram and Grandpa Bruces house, just on one floor though. Pretty fantastic. During the day its tough to see people, and since everyone is at work, knocking doors during the day is pretty unproductive (but it must be done anyway). I knocked my first door this week, it was a weird feeling knocking a door instead of yelling at a gate.
I've already had the COOLEST experience here and its been 6 days. Right when we got off the plane we went straight to Wendy's to eat. We almost went to a different one (because there are like 5 Wendy's on the island, my mind as blow upon receiving that information) but turned around and went to this certain Wendy's. We were just about done eating out meal, sitting back shooting the breeze, and a lady at the table next to us says "Excuse me, Im sorry to interupt, but I've always wondered what you guys do. I see you walking around but I've never known what it is exactly you do. One of you gave me a little blue book mayn years ago and I loved it, so what is it you do?" We explained that we were missionaries and stuff and shes just gushing about how much she loves the work we do and yadayadayada, so we ask her if we can come visit her this week. She gives us directions to her casa (and we have no idea where she is talking about, Elder Worley's only been here 6 weeks and there are enough roads to cover half the Atlantic if you streched them out) btu we got her number and left it at that. Saturday we got lost for about an hour trying to find her house, turns out Elder Worley knew exactly where it was the whole time (out directional skills are pretty bad, even with the map). We got to her house about two, expecting just to get to know her a little bit and see what she was all about.... not even close. This lady (she's 36) is golden. EVERY word that came out of her mouth or every question she had and every concern about church was perfect. "I just want the truth." "Why are there so many churches and one God?" "How can every church use the Bible but have there be so much confusion?" 2 and a half hours later, we have this awesome friend who is dying to understand the gospel and who's bringing her Aunt, Sister, and two neighbors over this week so they can all hear about this great message that Christ's original church we read about in the Bible is back on the Earth with a Prophet and 12 Apostles leading and guiding the people. Probably one of the coolest experiences I've had thus far on the mish. Super solid.
Church here is awesome too. There is close to 85-100 members that come out every Sunday, and this Sunday there were about 25 tourists. Talking to tourists is so cool! We met the brother of the Offensive Coordinator of the Seahawks yesterday. The people are really nice, we have a meal calander! Ya! A "Feed the missionaries" meal calendar! Crazy! Every sunday we have a nice meal with an American family who lives here named the Ds. Bro. D is the FUNNIEST guy I've ever met. I had to strategically plan when to take a drink of my juice so I didn't do it while or right before he was about to say something because everything that comes out of that guys mouth is hilarious and I was afraid of showering the table with juice coming out my noise. It was awesome, they are pretty great. I'm so excited for the next months coming up.
One thing that has been different is people asking me about my name. Just about everyone we meet asks me if I'm related to Mitt. Three or four people on Saturday after I had walked past them flagged us down to ask. Everyone at church asked, and there is a lady in the branch who I guess is super into American Politics and is a die hard Mitt fan, so much so she is flying to Utah to be apart of the election or to see him speak or something (and she's not an American citizen). She bore her testimony about me and Mitt and how proud she was that I was in the branch and stuff... it made me feel a little uncomfortable, but from the looks of how things are going its something that I'll need to get used to. Bro. D was saying that I should really know how exactly I am related to him so when people ask I can go back and start in the beggining when Miles Romney joined the church and turn it right into an opportunity to share the gospel. They got on wikipedia and family search and printed off a tree from wikipedia about the Romney family, and it didnt have the Junius Romney line so I added it in and discovered that Mitt's father George is Junius Stowel's 1st cousin. I think thats right, I have the paper at home. But when people ask Im gonna try to turn it into a chance to share the gospel. I think that will be a good way to make the most of that situation.
You guys are so busy! I love the pictures you sent, for some reason I cant get the video's to open, its a pretty out dated computer Im using, but im gonna see If I can throw them on my hard drive and watch them on a more updated computer somewhere. Summer is an indexing machine! Good work Mummer! Sounds like the garden is moving along- I can't remember, is it harvest time or replanting time? The weather never changed here so I can't guage when we would plant or harvest or anything like that. It will be so cool to go to it in person and see all the progess that has come along since I left. Time keeps moving no matter where you are at, a nugget of knowledge from Elder Romney.
Well Momma, keep up the good work. Im with ya on the struggle to fight the fat. All of a sudden my options when from fried chicken and rice and peas to any food I want and Im gonna have to buckle down if I don't wanna look like Papa Dudly from Harry Potter. Thankfully they have baby carrots here! I've been snacking on those things like a champ. Baby carrots, lots of fruit in the mornings, a good salad with some egg and tuna on it, and lifting to tone (not bulk up), im hoping to combat the typical missionary body. When I get back, Im gonna swim so much, remembering back to the couple times I did when we would go to the gym, I dont know why I put up such a fight about it haha IT's such a good workout! Then when I think of you swimming lap after lap after lap, I realized that my mom could whoop my butt in a workout contest haha So keep it up!
Well I Iove you! Have a great week and 4th of July! Blow something up for me! I love you!
Elder Romney
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